Economics, Politics and Public Policy in East Asia and the Pacific
Author: Sean Jacobs, Canberra
Sir Paul Hasluck, the Australian Minister for Territories from 1951 to 1963, once described PNG as ‘a task for Sisyphus’.
No matter how much he pushed the boulder to the top of the hill, Hasluck lamented, it could never quite stay at the top. ‘I think I did just as well as Sisyphus did’, he wrote in A Time for Building, ‘and certainly got just as tired’. Read more…
Author: Peter Drysdale, Editor, East Asia Forum
Papua New Guinea has enjoyed a period of heady growth over the past decade on the back of the China-driven global commodities boom. Currently at 9 per cent, GDP growth over the past 10 years has averaged around 6 per cent. Read more…
Author: Stephen Howes, ANU
Papua New Guinea experienced yet another year of high growth in 2012: GDP growth over the past 10 years has averaged close to 6 per cent.
Growth is expected to slow this year, but the medium-term outlook remains positive. Read more…
Author: Sean Jacobs, Canberra
In late 2012 Papua New Guinea Prime Minister Peter O’Neill delivered a series of speeches that give clues to the country’s growth and political aspirations.
For some time, observers of the country have been kept on a slim diet of academic analysis or fragmented news items for their understanding of the country and the intentions of its political leaders. Read more…
Author: Sean Jacobs, Canberra
Papua New Guinea’s dynamic economic growth over the past decade has created an appetite for big-picture trade and diplomatic ties, symbolised by its ongoing attempts to join ASEAN.
Author: Colin Filer, ANU
The Commission of Inquiry’s final report on Special Agricultural and Business Leases (SABLs) should soon be tabled in Papua New Guinea’s national parliament.
Author: Aaron Batten, ADB
Papua New Guinea’s (PNG’s) incoming government will inherit an economy buoyed by a decade of rapid economic growth and poised to reap the benefits of its vast natural wealth.
After the state was nearly bankrupted in 2001, real per capita income has risen by 150 per cent and private sector employment has more than doubled.
Author: Ron May, ANU
Papua New Guinean politics has been marked in recent months by political impasse: defiance of Supreme Court rulings, the passage of dubious legislation, the arrest of the chief justice, a brief military coup, attempts to sack the electoral commissioner and postpone the scheduled national election, and the declaration of a state of emergency in Port Moresby and parts of the highlands.
But it now seems certain that Papua New Guineans will go the polls for the country’s eighth national election beginning on 23 June. Read more…
Author: Mekere Morauta, PNG
Navigating a small economy through the choppy waters of the global economy is never easy.
But it is even harder when facing the peaks and troughs of resource booms and the unpredictable undercurrents of a complex polity. Read more…
Author: Stephen Howes, ANU
The Australia-PNG Ministerial Forum convened today in Canberra after a break of over two years.
And today the prime ministers of the two countries will also meet for the first time (outside of sideline meetings) following this significant interlude. Read more…
Author: Matthew Morris, ANU
The first 50 days of Papua New Guinea’s O’Neill-Namah government have seen reforms take off, including decisive action being taken to tackle corruption, public enterprises being cleaned up, and an 800 million kina (US$362 million) supplementary budget passed focusing on free education and infrastructure.
The next nine months provide an opportunity to put the economic foundations in place for better management of the mineral boom. Read more…
Author: Bill Standish, ANU
The opposition’s nomination of Works Minister Peter O’Neill as Papua New Guinea’s new prime minister on 2 August came as a shock to many.
But there were clues in some earlier press comments. Read more…
Author: Colin Filer, ANU
In April this year, the Policy Board of the United Nations Collaborative Programme on Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation in Developing Countries (UN-REDD) approved the National Programme Document which sets out how the Government of Papua New Guinea proposes to achieve a state of ‘REDD plus readiness’ within the next three years.
This triggers the release of about US$6.4 million towards the cost of making PNG look like it deserves to receive compensation from the international community for various steps taken to reduce carbon dioxide emissions from this source. Read more…
Author: Bill Standish, ANU
Papua New Guinea’s political dramas have intensified in the 10 weeks that Prime Minister Sir Michael Somare has spent in intensive care in Singapore’s Raffles Hospital.
Only on 22 June did Arthur Somare, the Minister for Public Enterprises, tell Parliament that his 75-year-old father had undergone a heart valve operation plus two further emergency operations. Read more…
Author: Graeme Smith, UTS and ANU
With China’s hunger for resources, its mining ventures into the Pacific continue to expand. With the discovery of vast tracts of copper deposits in New Britain, there are likely to be new investments in PNG undertaken by Chinese state-owned enterprises, quite possibly in partnership with Australian mineral exploration companies.
To date, China’s flagship project in the Pacific islands has been the Ramu nickel and cobalt mine, a US$1.4 billion investment in PNG’s Madang province managed by the China Metallurgical Corporation (MCC), in partnership with Brisbane-based Highlands Pacific. Read more…